In recent weeks, ILRI has signed collaborative research agreements in China, India and Vietnam. These build on several years of past engagement and aim to deepen ILRI’s work in these and other countries in Asia. Continue reading
Despite significant progress in increasing livestock production in Ethiopia, analysis of livestock production and consumption by the Livestock State Ministry (LSM) and ILRI show a huge shortfall in the supply of livestock products. Detailed interdisciplinary research provides clear empirical evidence of the potential benefits of a comprehensive livestock master plan (LMP) for Ethiopia. In the absence of investment, these gaps will grow, causing food insecurity and other important economic and social repercussions. Continue reading
At a time when the price of mutton is climbing and wool crashing, a groundbreaking new study has used advanced genetic sequencing technology to rewrite the history of sheep breeding and trading along the ancient Silk Road—insights that can help contemporary herders in developing countries preserve or recover valuable traits crucial to their food and economic security. The new findings regarding one of the first animals ever domesticated will be published in the October print edition of the journal Molecular Biology and Evolution. They are the product of an unprecedented collaboration involving scientists in China, Iran, Pakistan, Indonesia, Nepal, Finland, and the United Kingdom. The team analysed the complete mitochondrial DNA of 42 domesticated native sheep breeds from Azerbaijan, Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan, Poland, Finland, China and the United Kingdom, along with two wild sheep species from Kazakhstan. Continue reading
Livestock production accounts for approximately one third of the global water footprint, and Ethiopia is no different. A scarce commodity in the country, water availability has been aggravated by climatic fluctuations and rapid economic growth. With the potential consequences for human health of a lack of quality drinking water, as well as for the country’s development, there is a strong case for enhancing the role of research for development in understanding better how limited water resources can be used. Continue reading
On 16 July 2015, a high-level delegation from Switzerland visited the International Livestock Research Institute’s (ILRI) campus in Ethiopia. The short visit aimed to give the Swiss visitors some insights into research taking place on the campus, by ILRI and other CGIAR centres. Continue reading
Smallholder farmers and pastoral herders in East Africa are the target of an ongoing joint project of ILRI, the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) and the CGIAR Research Program on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security (CCAFS). Continue reading
Existing technologies of drying and grading cassava peels could hold the key to providing a readily available and sustainable source of animal feeds, increasing incomes for women and boosting food security in West Africa. Continue reading
Over the last 20 years, the Ethiopian government has prioritized the transformation of the agricultural sector, yet the absence of a livestock roadmap has hindered implementation. Continue reading
On 9-10 June 2015, a delegation from CIRAD, the French agricultural research and international cooperation organization, visited ILRI in Nairobi to develop concrete ideas for collaboration between the two organizations. Continue reading
Information, ideas and technologies generated by research provide the skeleton on which human development everywhere and at all times depends. New ideas, embedded in technological change, drive human growth, allowing us to escape the grim statistics that haunt peoples of the developed world and the hardships that face peoples of the developing world. Continue reading
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